tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-351435132012-01-20T13:49:09.197-08:00This blog comments on business, education, philosophy, psychology, and economics, among other topics, based on my understanding of Ayn Rand’s philosophy and Ludwig von Mises’ economics. Epistemology and psychology are my special interests. Your remarks are welcome, although I prefer that you sign your real name, first and last. Note that I assume ethical egoism and laissez-faire capitalism are morally and economically unassailable. My interest is in applying, not defending, them.Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.comBlogger641100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-29235096735185154452012-01-20T13:44:00.000-08:002012-01-20T13:49:09.205-08:00

My previous post discussed how mistaken thinking about research evidence in nutrition has led to a misleading or even false understanding of how we should approach and maintain our health. A broader question than the argument-from-uncertainty fallacy arises: what is it in the nature of scientific investigation that makes these kinds of errors possible? The short answer is that there is no free

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-53019763588770320812011-12-03T09:52:00.001-08:002011-12-07T06:34:23.847-08:00

The fallacy of the argument from uncertainty, or at least one form of it, might also be called the “it’s better to be safe than sorry” argument. For example, the European Union among other inanities recently ruled that children under eight must be supervised while blowing up a balloon, lest the children swallow or choke on part or all of the dangerous inflatable. How likely is this to occur? “

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-9136903564873785192011-11-04T08:31:00.000-07:002011-11-04T08:31:13.036-07:00

Independent judgment is both a personality trait, a distinctive way of thinking and acting, and a character trait, a moral conviction in the face of opposition or indifference to stand by one’s beliefs and values. A number of writers in their own nuanced ways have captured the gist of these traits. The late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple Computer, offers in his Stanford Commencement Address of

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-63989249476053198742011-10-07T16:06:00.000-07:002011-10-07T16:15:09.618-07:00

The impetus for this post is once again my daughter’s softball. She is currently playing in what is called “travel,” as opposed to “recreational,” ball and the seemingly endless string of practices and games almost every weekend tempt me to recite the title of this post to other parents. Not that I want to take anything away from my daughter’s talent and desire to excel in a fun sport, nor the

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-59955452409248100342011-09-21T10:58:00.000-07:002011-09-28T08:07:39.583-07:00

The title of this post comes from psychiatrist and attention-deficit/hyperactivity-disorder (ADHD) critic Peter Breggin. It’s a variation of Maria Montessori’s line to “control the environment, not the child.” For Montessori, children develop healthy psychologies—become “normalized,” to use her term—by being left free to pursue their own interests and choose their own educational work, provided

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-31576760006099967522011-08-29T10:59:00.000-07:002011-08-29T10:59:36.119-07:00

The fundamental method of science is observation, so nineteenth century naturalist Louis Agassiz (pp. 40-48) stressed its importance in teaching and learning. As he told one student, “Take this fish and look at it.” Hours later, when the student wanted to know what to do next, Agassiz replied, “Look at your fish.” And still later, “Look, look, look.” For three days the student looked at the fish,

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-66486767040813466372011-07-25T08:27:00.000-07:002011-07-25T08:27:32.010-07:00

In my previous post I argued that hitting a child or dog is neither nice nor necessary. Positive motivation and the desire and willingness to develop a warm relationship are what generate influence to channel behavior in appropriate ways. The implication about hitting a child is that it transgresses legal boundaries.* Indeed, spanking would seem to violate child abuse laws and some judges have

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-50015213841967643262011-06-23T14:04:00.000-07:002011-09-28T08:00:00.324-07:00

Hitting is not nice. I’m talking about the non-self-defensive kind, the initiation of the use of physical force to get your way. Its goal is submission. Just think thief with a knife. If you don’t hand over your wallet, that is, submit to the thief’s wishes, you may suffer the physical force of a knife or fist. Why are dogs and children hit? “Smacking” is a word one still hears today as a

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-8618446320815739552011-05-24T07:46:00.000-07:002011-09-28T07:52:08.394-07:00

A recent New York Times article exposed group projects in business schools as the frauds they have always been. When four or five students are assigned to produce one paper, the outcome should be obvious: at most one-fourth or one-fifth of the learning results, as opposed to the one-hundred percent learning of one student producing the entire paper. Many in groups who defer to others to do the

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-72457719867939773192011-04-19T11:43:00.000-07:002011-09-28T07:49:36.060-07:00

In a previous post, I argued that method is primary in education, not content. By method I meant teaching students how to think conceptually. In the process of learning how to think, content would follow. In the current post, I would like to broaden this theme to the primacy of psychology, to teaching the effective use one’s mind in controlling and guiding behavior. The primacy of psychology

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-55992348697079986552011-03-18T11:00:00.000-07:002011-03-18T11:03:19.537-07:00

In education there exists a continuum of how much control is exerted over students or, to put it another way, how much choice is given to them. The scale ranges from the total control and minimal choice of state-run traditional education to the considerable freedom to choose given to students of such alternative schools as Summerhill and Sudbury Valley. With their cleverly designed didactic

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-12278199748809341052011-02-17T09:42:00.000-08:002011-02-17T09:42:23.927-08:00

The recent hullabaloo over Amy Chua’s Wall Street Journal article generated at least one response identifying a similar obsession in American moms. Chua, who acknowledges that her behavior is not unique to the Chinese, coerced her daughters, often punishing and shaming them in numerous and, to many Americans, shocking ways, to insure that the daughters would be the top in their classes and play

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-64240510467281345022011-01-14T15:41:00.001-08:002011-01-14T15:41:14.494-08:00

In youth sports these days, a favorite refrain from adults, especially male coaches, is “There’s no crying in . . . [name the sport].” The phrase, taken from the 1992 Tom Hanks movie A League of Their Own, has even come into the vernacular with people now saying “there’s no crying in . . . [name the profession].” Certain phrases that become common can be charming, such as “where’s the beef?” or

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-89960950794522408272010-12-04T12:22:00.000-08:002010-12-04T12:22:11.580-08:00

Many years ago when I was a young man, I bought a kitchen blender for my then girlfriend as a birthday present. I proudly mentioned this gift to a friend and the friend’s reaction was best described by the expression, “If looks could kill, . . . .” Lesson learned. Not quite the best romantic choice. The blender principle refers to the art of gift giving and since this is the holiday season, I

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-52372975682441634492010-11-05T11:12:00.000-07:002010-11-05T11:20:40.822-07:00

It is with great trepidation that I write this post. Not ever having been one to talk a lot, I know from experience that if I dare to talk back to a talker I will be talked into the ground. Talkers do not suffer comment lightly, especially when the comment comes from quiet people. Talkers are experts at having the last word, and if they do not like what I say in this post, I am certain that they

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-10967837193189363972010-10-13T09:24:00.000-07:002010-10-30T10:55:59.997-07:00

When I began working in business, shortly after receiving my bachelor's degree, I experienced a pleasant surprise: I immensely enjoyed what I was doing. Indeed, I felt that working in business was a lot more fun than being a student, so much so that it took nearly six-and-a-half years before I could summon the strength to go to graduate school. I have related this story to a number of people, but

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-21293544960735388032010-09-14T10:59:00.000-07:002011-09-27T20:42:47.351-07:00

In economics the principle of unilateral free trade (1, 2, 3) holds that everyone benefits when one country by itself, ignoring what others may do, eliminates all tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade. Cheap imports increase the standard of living both at home and in the exporting country. The historical experiment and demonstration of this principle was the repeal of England's Corn Laws in

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-90361668458237499372010-08-17T09:51:00.000-07:002010-08-17T09:51:27.215-07:00

The boy in the Hans Christian Andersen tale of “The Emperor’s New Clothes” is often admired for his independent judgment, that is, for his courage to speak a truth that the adults feared to acknowledge openly. Two questions, however, can be asked about independent judgment as a virtue. One, can everyone really practice it (besides naive children) or is it the province of true creators and

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-1919271221762698112010-07-16T15:02:00.000-07:002010-07-16T15:02:49.879-07:00

In my book Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism (p. 118, note 8), I speculate that the root of dictatorship may be the parent/child relationship, stemming from the millenniums old theory of teaching and parenting based on authoritarianism. “If it is okay to coerce children,” I write, “why should it not also be okay to coerce adults?” I drew this conclusion not just from the work of Maria Montessori

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-28170607686180356582010-06-21T20:07:00.000-07:002010-06-21T20:07:08.204-07:00

In the ancient world, teachers were not respected. “He’s either dead or else he’s teaching somewhere” was a comment made in a comedy fragment about someone missing from a gathering. And Lucian relegated a dethroned king to Hades to sell salt or old boots . . . or to become a teacher.* Making money on the market—teachers were paid a fee for their services—was disparaged. Not until the

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-36926969132369003912010-05-20T20:45:00.000-07:002010-05-20T20:45:51.576-07:00

Ideas have consequences and one consequence is that, when implemented, certain ideas can kill. Two recent stints of sitting six-plus hours in the emergency room of a local hospital stimulated thoughts on the state of socialized medicine today. As a marketing professor, the first sarcastic comment that came to mind was just how little the hospital staff cared about their paying customers who were

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-64551613978967943082010-04-27T18:52:00.000-07:002010-04-27T18:52:41.719-07:00

Courage is being true to your values in the face of danger, fear, or other difficulty. Sometimes it is considered a willingness to undertake challenges others would not, but everyone in fact possesses the capacity to take such actions. Confidence in one’s abilities, cultivated over many years, is often a precondition of courage, as in the brave calmness exhibited by a performer standing before

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-17425050834272521442010-03-24T11:20:00.000-07:002010-03-24T11:20:43.884-07:00

Much ink has been spilled for decades over the concepts of teaching, learning, and doing, producing such commonplaces as “learning by doing is the best way to learn” and “let’s focus on learning, not teaching.” A couple of clarifications, however, need to be made about both of these remarks. Consider the first one. Learning and doing, epistemologically and psychologically, are two different

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-40933075122664251162010-03-18T17:02:00.001-07:002010-03-18T20:21:12.087-07:00

This blog is now located at http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/. You will be automatically redirected in 30 seconds, or you may click here. For feed subscribers, please update your feed subscriptions to http://jerrykirkpatrick.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-72406036651112451942010-02-15T08:19:00.000-08:002011-09-27T10:55:42.699-07:00

The American free school movement of the 1960s and early ‘70s arose as a rebellion against the oppressive authoritarianism of state-run education, that is, the top-down, coercive, follow-the-rules and -rubrics mentality that dictates from on high what has to be done in the classroom. Various writers have referred to this authoritarian system, among other terms, as a technocracy and a “factory

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-52206902461874849332010-01-22T06:07:00.000-08:002011-09-27T10:53:03.465-07:00

Many years ago, while being interviewed by a dean for an academic position, I became engaged in a discussion of the philosophy of education. The dean tossed out as if it were self-evident: “The lecture has been obsolete for 500 years, since the invention of the printing press. Students can read the book.” His assumption was that lectures were needed in the pre-printing press era when books were

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-29705817996497528832009-12-17T09:45:00.000-08:002011-09-27T10:42:14.174-07:00

Unjustly neglected, difficult-to-find, and significantly influential on my own work, The Real Academic Community and The Rational Alternative by Thomas L. Johnson is a kind of “education in one lesson.” Like Henry Hazlitt’s gem on economics, Johnson’s begins with the lesson and then illustrates it abundantly throughout the remaining chapters. The lesson? That schools today (and since antiquity)

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-44073844191078206902009-11-16T19:54:00.000-08:002011-09-27T10:30:37.458-07:00

Education in the United States today is a monopoly, as is the supply of rental apartments in many cities. Monopoly[1] is the restriction of a portion of a market for the exclusive use of certain select sellers at the expense of other sellers who are forbidden entrance into these markets. It is a government-granted privilege. The delivery of first class mail is the most obvious privilege granted

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-64852380901264088632009-10-09T12:59:00.000-07:002011-09-27T10:22:43.577-07:00

The progressive education goal of teaching students how to think, as opposed to teaching them a particular content, does not mean that content is omitted or ranked third, fourth, or fifth in the hierarchy. It does not even mean that content is ranked second, for as John Dewey put it in one of his occasional business metaphors, subject matter is the working capital of thought. Taken literally, a

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-45547851160666177172009-09-08T15:04:00.000-07:002009-09-08T15:12:07.321-07:00

In discussions of curriculum over the past one hundred or so years, debate has ranged from letting children choose entirely what they want to study, guided only by their interests, to forced memorization of the encyclopedia, usually called the core curriculum. “Memorizing the encyclopedia” might be a harsh characterization, but some die-hard core-curriculum advocates would not object to it. The

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-25786306534616482009-08-24T16:25:00.000-07:002011-09-27T10:19:09.121-07:00

Understanding the broad abstractions of ethics and epistemology can instill confidence in one’s work life. Such understanding is especially helpful in a business career, not for the purpose of preaching to co-workers, employees, or customers, but to maintain clear thoughts about what is right and wrong in decision making and to correctly perceive facts in complicated situations. Most ethical

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-49842991874948036852009-07-20T08:35:00.000-07:002011-09-27T10:16:52.895-07:00

A line from the 1980 movie Coal Miner’s Daughter has the young and upcoming country music singer Loretta Lynn saying something like “I’m ignorant, not stupid.” The distinction—lack of knowledge versus lack of intelligence—is significant not just for the ignorant person’s self-esteem and confidence to move up in the competitive world, but also as a matter of justice in how others, especially the

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-36878563135774067962009-06-23T11:03:00.000-07:002011-09-27T10:12:59.078-07:00

Educational accreditation is unethical because it is government-initiated coercion to control the production and distribution of education. In the United States the control is indirect; in most other countries it is direct. Accreditation also infringes academic freedom, though that concept itself is a mixed product of government involvement in education.Accreditation is the process of certifying

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-18651408565579926602009-05-18T07:37:00.001-07:002011-09-27T10:06:51.743-07:00

Carrot and stick motivation, especially the latter, as opposed to communication, persuasion, and appeals to inner values, are alive and well in today’s world. The question is, why are such extrinsic sources of motivation so common? A number of reasons can be given.For example, in the academic world of professorial tenure, faculty can almost never be fired. As a result, some administrators and

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-11785997858346122352009-04-26T16:41:00.000-07:002011-09-27T09:55:41.213-07:00

In a previous post I said that teachers are peddlers of ideas who must sell their wares as much as any other sales rep or entrepreneur. The process by which soap and ideas are sold is essentially the same. The method is persuasive communication and the purveyors of both can be honest or dishonest. There is nothing unique to the theory of salesmanship that makes sales reps more prone to dishonesty

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-57460218211740670502009-03-23T07:50:00.000-07:002009-03-23T08:00:16.649-07:00

This post is a paean to the arts, especially music, and especially the three-quarter time signature. In music, three-quarter time means that the rhythm of the music is played in a pattern of three beats to the bar, instead of the more common four, and usually with emphasis on the first. It is the rhythm of the waltz and carries with it a lilting, cheerful disposition. It is the seemingly silky

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-81096091537184869082009-02-15T12:40:00.000-08:002011-09-27T09:41:39.573-07:00

One of the unfortunate diseases of older age is the tendency to pessimism or even cynicism. Nostalgia for the good old days is rampant, with complaints about how the young don’t know what we knew at their age and how they are so ill-mannered and unworldly. When generalized to the political and cultural arenas, Armageddon is said to be imminent. For advocates of capitalism and admirers of Ayn Rand

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-57156510226859645952009-01-20T10:27:00.000-08:002009-01-20T10:49:00.740-08:00

As I state in Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism (p. 86), Freud was first to identify that we possess a dynamic, integrating subconscious mind, “dynamic” meaning continuously active and making connections whether we are awake or asleep. Thus, when we are asleep, our subconscious mind is constantly operating, connecting our many experiences of the previous day, week, or years, oftentimes

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-29883299261235459332008-12-23T08:35:00.000-08:002011-09-26T13:54:02.725-07:00

When I first came up with the title for this post, I thought I should google it to see if anyone had done anything similar. Sure enough. Phony!: How I Faked My Way Through Life, a confessional memoir, was just published. I have not read the book, but the publisher’s blurbs say it is the story of a young woman who lied about not having a college degree and rose to high positions in business.

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-31176802164434986562008-11-26T06:07:00.000-08:002011-09-26T13:51:37.317-07:00

“Many people need to be coerced to do things for their own good.” This is a common refrain heard from social liberals and religious conservatives alike.National service was advocated by both presidential candidates in the recent election; young people are to be coerced to “do good for their own good.” Advocates of the military draft have always argued that it is the duty of eighteen-year-olds to

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-68007423689561250562008-10-23T09:32:00.000-07:002011-09-26T13:47:23.562-07:00

The education literature since at least Rousseau has cautioned against viewing the child as a small adult. The meaning of the phrase, however, is not totally clear.“Small adult” usually means that children are viewed as adults in miniature, that is, as small in height and weight and weak in physical strength, but otherwise as possessing an adult brain that is merely absent content. The job of

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-90076847068178449632008-09-08T14:03:00.000-07:002008-09-08T14:24:58.715-07:00

Politics bores me. That’s why I have not written a blog on politics or on the upcoming election. Let this post suffice as my comment on today’s politics.The Democrats’ loss in 2004 led to much soul-searching to define what the Democratic brand of liberalism should be or represent. Advice given focused on the usual concretes—guns, abortion, gay rights—the kinds of issues that would excite no one

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-85925633110899919782008-08-12T09:40:00.000-07:002011-09-26T13:40:15.344-07:00

As I argue in a previous post, independent judgment, the ability and willingness to perceive facts as facts and to respond to them regardless of what situational factors—especially, other people’s approval— may dictate, should be a fundamental aim of parenting and teaching.Independence means that one’s psychological disposition, i.e., one’s self-esteem, integrity, and courage, should be

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-24123848921750046362008-07-17T13:18:00.000-07:002008-07-17T15:24:44.057-07:00

Teachers are peddlers of knowledge and ideas.Well, that’s what they would be in a free market in education and that’s how they should think of themselves in today’s government-run and government-controlled system.In a free market in education teachers would be sales reps for their schools. Some might even be owner-entrepreneurs who hang out their shingles and then must recruit, i.e., sell, and

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-1566410372386475402008-06-13T09:32:00.000-07:002008-06-13T09:53:24.666-07:00

I don’t know where I’ve been for the past several decades but I had never heard the expression “turning caterpillars into butterflies” used in relation to teaching. That is, until this spring when my daughter’s softball coaches used it several times to explain their goal of coaching twelve eight-and-under girls. Add to this the coaches’ commitment to “no child left behind”—meaning every girl on

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-91304921634643825462008-05-16T10:41:00.000-07:002011-09-26T13:35:21.491-07:00

In chapter 4 of Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism, I wrote: “Rules are commands to act or not act a certain way. Obedience may be rewarded; disobedience is certainly punished.” The context was the regulation of child and student behavior and my point was that “rules have no place in a theory of nurture.” Rules call for obedience to authority. Principles, on the other hand, teach abstract thought

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-27870654280322113882008-04-14T09:11:00.000-07:002011-09-26T13:33:33.219-07:00

In academia there is an adage that says disputes among professors are bitter precisely because the stakes are so small. The statement has been attributed to various people, including Henry Kissinger and Woodrow Wilson. In print the more general conception is known as Issawi’s law of social motion, specifically: “In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-5693479973784528092008-03-16T16:03:00.000-07:002011-09-26T13:30:05.868-07:00

In my book Montessori, Dewey, and Capitalism I treat favorably a number of ideas from philosopher John Dewey, which may come as a surprise to admirers of Ayn Rand. The key to understanding why I do so is to see Dewey as an Aristotelian who rejects intrinsicism without resorting to skepticism or subjectivism.During his years at Columbia University, Dewey came under the influence of Aristotelian

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-41819823928894529942008-02-21T06:06:00.000-08:002008-02-21T07:28:11.570-08:00

Socialism, and more broadly collectivism, as Ayn Rand pointed out, died as a moral ideal in 1945. As a practical ideal, socialism died with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Yet socialism and the principle that government might is required to make right is still with us. How can that be?Answer: epistemological errors of Enlightenment thinkers, specifically their failure to identify the

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-59336532346626167682008-01-25T09:22:00.000-08:002011-09-26T13:11:56.240-07:00

A favorite pastime of today’s teachers, especially college professors, is the trashing of their students.“My students are terrible,” is the common complaint. “They can’t write, they can’t calculate, and they can’t think. They are woefully ignorant! They just don’t measure up to the standards of the good old days when I was a student.” And those “good old days,” depending on the age of the critic,

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-29211195825133819682007-12-26T08:31:00.001-08:002011-09-21T11:54:45.154-07:00

Sound judgment means sensible—i.e., rational or considered, not impulsive—decision making. Many parents and teachers value this process as a primary skill that children and students should possess upon reaching adulthood. In contrast, independent judgment, which presupposes sensible decision making, is not often cited as a valued goal of either education or adulthood, yet this is the

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-40075063584601371272007-11-26T14:09:00.000-08:002007-11-27T16:15:59.526-08:00

This lament is often heard today about medicine and education, among other fields. Business, however, is the last thing medicine and education have been turned into. Bureaus of the government would be a more accurate description. Why the confusion between bureaucracy and business?The simplest answer is that most people do not understand the difference between the two. A bureaucracy, as Ludwig von

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-70956034892145806982007-10-24T07:18:00.000-07:002011-09-26T12:33:50.970-07:00

In a previous post, I argued that academic peer review is a gatekeeping process brought about by the post-World War II growth of government involvement in research and scholarship. Though it may control quality in a narrow, conventional sense, one significant consequence of this process is the suppression of innovation. The present post takes a look at the underlying ethics and epistemology of

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-35280401118420206062007-09-26T19:06:00.000-07:002007-09-26T19:35:22.707-07:00

No, not the card game. I occasionally use this phrase—he or she needs to go fish—as metaphor for what some so-called problem children in elementary schools should be allowed to do.My source for the phrase is Daniel Greenberg’s Sudbury Valley School (1, 2, 3), which is located on a ten-acre estate in Massachusetts. One of the essential features of the school is that the children, ages four to

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-64430037021554852462007-08-30T10:48:00.000-07:002011-09-26T11:06:42.326-07:00

Why is BS’ing admired, almost to the point of being “cuddly and warm,” as philosopher Harry Frankfurt put it, whereas lying is considered morally repugnant?Frankfurt examined BS in his 2005 monograph On Bullshit (BS) and distinguished it from lying. The liar, Frankfurt argued, is focused on facts so he or she may state the opposite, but the BS’er is an entertainer or artist who uses words and

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-40540104465913364352007-07-27T06:26:00.000-07:002007-07-27T08:19:39.632-07:00

As a young man I accepted the wisdom of doctors and their prescriptions without question, never bothering to learn the names of the drugs they ordered. After reading Jerome Groopman’s book How Doctors Think, I am not so sure I want to go back to a doctor! The ten to fifteen percent error rate in diagnosis and similar percentage in the misreading of x-rays and MRIs does not give one confidence in

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-47728766843560047822007-06-26T05:38:00.000-07:002007-11-20T13:43:21.033-08:00

Three recent posts produced several questions and comments.Follow the Government Intervention. In “The Market Gives Privilege to No One” I stated that certain groups of professionals do not usually work weekends and that the computer industry’s “24/7” indicates the ultimate in free-market service. “But I work weekends,” protested one doctor and one professor and shock was expressed that I was

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-27828682752916748452007-05-21T09:37:00.000-07:002011-09-26T10:56:13.671-07:00

In marketing the most effective way to introduce new products is the free sample. In 1978 Lever Brothers spent $15 million ($47.55 million in today’s currency) delivering a free sample of Signal Mouthwash to two-thirds of all US households. The strategy was a success and the product remained on the market well into the 1990s. The significance of the free sample is product trial; it gets the

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-15581678097148143232007-05-03T15:35:00.000-07:002011-09-26T10:48:42.474-07:00

“Superlatives belong to the marketplace,” says David Ogilvy, founder of the Ogilvy and Mather advertising agency, not in “serious advertisement; they lead readers to discount the realism of every claim.” The same could be said about praise given to others: superlatives should come from the recipient of the compliment.What Ogilvy means is that describing what a product can do for the customer,

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-69566398386154973802007-04-11T12:31:00.000-07:002007-04-11T16:12:40.077-07:00

In product development there are two kinds of errors. A “go” error occurs when the green light is given to a product that eventually fails. The Edsel, a $250 million write-off by the Ford Motor Company in 1959, is one example. The “drop” error occurs when an idea that could have been highly profitable is eliminated from further consideration. How do we know that the idea could have been

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-54140973581381511582007-03-13T08:42:00.000-07:002007-04-10T12:42:20.851-07:00

“Bankers’ hours” is an old phrase that actually reflects monopolistic privilege. The 10AM to 3PM that banks formerly were open to serve customers was made possible by government regulation and the consequent lack of competition to force bankers to be more available when customers needed them. With modest deregulation (and the electronic bookkeeping that deregulation encouraged) banks today are

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-61411270003504585352007-02-15T17:39:00.000-08:002007-04-10T12:39:47.777-07:00

I admit that I have not heard this question in precisely that form. After the hardcover edition of my book In Defense of Advertising: Arguments from Reason, Ethical Egoism, and Laissez-Faire Capitalism was published, I did hear the question this way: Why does advertising need to be defended? As advertising is the point man and product of capitalism, the two questions are intimately related.The

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-77664806972439167922007-01-21T07:31:00.000-08:002007-05-02T16:32:21.997-07:00

Education and social critic Alfie Kohn is an exhaustive researcher and engaging writer. I have not read all of his eleven original books, but I do highly recommend these two: Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A’s, Praise, and Other Bribes and Unconditional Parenting: Moving from Rewards and Punishments to Love and Reason. The titles and subtitles make clear his

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35143513.post-53643471198006733282007-01-01T06:46:00.001-08:002011-09-21T12:41:02.656-07:00

Starting a new blog—and especially since the paperback edition of my book defending advertising has just been published—I suppose I should begin with a post about advertising. So let me deal with a question that frequently arises: “What about subliminal advertising?,” to which I typically respond, “What about it? It doesn’t exist!” That’s the short answer. Some elaboration is required. The

Jerry Kirkpatrickhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15361738222191730052noreply@blogger.com2